Wat's in a Wat?

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Today was a day of firsts... let me explain:

First day without Kris and we planned to keep our mourning minds occupied with a short 1-day trip to Ayutthaya.  We packed our day packs, checked-out of our rooms and left our honking backpacks with the New World Lodge staff (valuables locked up of course).  With all of our clothes at the laundry, we figured there wasn't much of value for anyone to steal, so we felt pretty good about paying 25 baht to not have to lug them all the way to Ayutthaya -- highly recommended, by the way!

Our second first was that we tried the Bangkok bus -- the local bus, in fact, meaning no a/c!  We got on and made a classic tourist error by sitting in the back of the bus.  Anyone who knows about Bangkok buses (apparently) knows that the back of the bus is reserved for the monks... so after a few minutes of realizing that no one but us was using the back seat, we changed seats!  After about an hour and a half of traveling (nothing in Bangkok is close to anything else) -- all for 7 baht none the less... less than $0.30 CDN -- we arrived at the bus station, where helpful people saw our confused faces and helped us find the bus we needed.

2 hours and 50 baht later, we arrived in Ayutthaya.  The story behind this city is that it was Thailand's former capital and the site of many historic battles.  Think Quebec City, but this time, the ruins are THOUSANDS of years old, not hundreds, as in Canada.  We were pretty excited to see the old ruins, which are surprisingly well-preserved.  When we got off the bus, several "helpful" people met us -- we have come to expect this now and just say "no thank you" over and over again until they go away -- so we re-grouped, checked out the map and realized that with the noonday heat, we would not be walking to our guesthouse. 

That's when we met Mr. Daeng.  Mr. Daeng had the cutest little pink songthew and he was just itching to give us a ride.  So for 30 baht, we agreed and he drove us the little way.  We arrived at the U.P. Inn, checked out the room and agreed on the price of 500 baht for the night (about $15 CDN, or $7.50 each), but Mr. Daeng was still there, waiting to take us around Ayutthaya for the day!  We found his rate of 200 baht a little extravagant, but after consulting with the guesthouse staff and our trusty map, we agreed to treat ourselves.  The ruins of Ayutthaya are impressive, but there was definitely a lack of urban planning 2000 years ago, so the ruins are extremely spaced out, the closest ones being easily a 10 minute walk from one another, in 40-degree heat nonetheless and there are at least 6-10 notable sites.

First stop was 7-11, where we loaded up on water, with one for Mr. Daeng as well (we can't have him passing out on the clock!).  The best part of having a hired chauffeur was that we didn't have to think!  The route was totally planned and we just got in and out of the songthew like princesses, at each stop asking, "Where are we Mr. Daeng?" and he would obediently produce his set of well-worn postcards to show us the next historic site.  When we were done, we climbed back into the songthew and sped out again to another wat.  But truly the most incredible part of all of this was that for a measly 20 or 30 baht, we were allowed to climb all over the enormous structures -- some of them nearly 2000 years old, take as many flashbulb photos of pure-gold Buddhas as we wanted and sit with our greasy sweaty bodies on crumbling piles of thai history!  You can't even think about bringing a camera close to Montreal's oratory... it was really neat, but also sad to think that these structures are being sort of abused.    

After over 3 hours of wat-hopping in the heat, having drunk over 3 litres of water (we stopped twice at 7-11), and having visited 7 wats, we were all watted out. Wat a day -- pardon the pun!  

But before I continue, I have to re-cap the firsts:

• First bus trip in Bangkok
• First guesthouse
• First hired vehicle to my name
• First Turkish (think squat) toilet -- a full 5 baht to use too!!
• First time climbing around on stones that are 1000 years old

Back at the guesthouse, showers were FIRST priority (total haul for Mr. Daeng was 600 baht total, or 300 each -- about $9 CDN -- if you were wondering!).  Except... there is no shower.... right... Basically, it's like the shower on a boat, such that there is a shower head on the wall and the entire bathroom is your shower stall!  Close the toilet, hide the TP and pray there's no flood!  Liz braved it first and I have to say that when it was my turn, it really wasn't so bad.

After dinner, we had dinner at our guesthouse's restaurant and the pad thai was O.K., but decently priced as our entire meal (with banana shakes, of course) came to under $3 CDN.  We were showered, full and ready for our night cruise to see the wats lit up from the river, but about an hour before we were set to leave, the monsoon rain started, with lightening and thunder that would have driven Maple insane.  No cruise for us sadly!

The guesthouse common room was pretty full though, so we got out our books, then explored the movie collection and finally settled down to the internet instead.  But before we left, my -- hopefully -- final first of the day: having a cockroach nearly run down my shirt... that's right.  It flew onto my bag and I felt it crawling around near my braid and I lept up, spilled my beer all over the table and screamed.  The whole common room stared at us as Liz (also standing now) said, "It's hiding under the table!" Then she balled up the magazine we were reading and killed the bastard!  ha!  What a rukus we were -- as always!  I get a chill just thinking about it -- gross!!!!  The man at the table next to us added helpfully, "Just a small one."  Yeah buddy, it's still triple the size of the ones at home.....